City steps back from codes to regulate rental property, residential homes

A set of codes that could have been a stepping stone toward rental properties inspections were indefinitely tabled Monday by Poplar Bluff City Council members.

The matter was proposed by city planner Matt Winters and opposed by council member Ron Black, who left the council table, saying he would speak as a citizen on the matter. Black later returned to his council seat to vote in favor of tabling the matter.

Also speaking against the proposed codes was Butler County resident Greg West. Both Black and West own rental property in the city.

“These are international codes. These are not codes that I wrote, or that code enforcement wrote … If you look at cities that are our size and smaller, if you look at Cape (Girardeau), Sikeston, Farmington, Fredericktown, Kennett, this code is in place in those cities,” Winters told council members, after Black spoke, adding, “My purpose for presenting this to you as a council was that … do we continue to let homes fall into disrepair and become derelict or do we put some steps and some processes in place to help at a minimum maintain our housing stock or at a best case scenario improve our housing stock.”

This was a first step, with a rental inspection program as something he would like to see in place, according to Winters.

“This is a process that is done statewide to help maintain and regulate housing quality in towns that are our size and smaller,” he said.

Winters urged council members to table the matter, if they needed more information, and to seek out answers to their questions.

A 10-page summary of the proposed codes was provided in council documents. Winters said the full code book was available for review at city hall.

Council members have spent recent weeks approving updates to similar international codes, including for HVACR and existing buildings. On Monday, they moved an update to the international plumbing code to the Dec. 10 voting session without further discussion.

The information provided to council did not provide enough explanation of some of the possible requirements, Black said, when he spoke from the podium used by members of the public to address the council. The proposed items might be applied to both private and rental properties, he said.

“I think if you push it to it’s limits, the worst case scenario folks, it sets us up to be headed toward the Detroit of the south,” Black said. “There’s an old saying, a pig in a poke, right now, I think this is a pig in a poke, because we don’t know what it is.

“I would encourage you as a council to fully understand what it means, what it doesn’t mean, and how you’re going to fund it.”

Black spoke for approximately 17 minutes and was not timed during the period. Other members of the public are limited to 10 minutes, and were timed at the meeting.

Black raised questions about several sections included in the proposal, such as that structures should be kept free from insects and rodents.

“That home can be repaired that day, and a new person move in, and the day they move in, they carry the rodents with them. Is it going to be the owner’s responsibility?” Black asked.

A portion of the discussion by officials did include that certain inspections could be carried out at change of occupancy, before a new occupant moved in.

Black also pointed out sections that related to minimum sizes for living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms based on the number of expected occupants for a home.

“Is the city going to come in and inspect the size of mom and pop who live in a — and have had low income through their years — but have a modest home, that’s clean, neat, no trash, no vehicles, are we going to go in and inspect their bedrooms, living rooms?” Black asked.

If fully implemented, the city would need to hire more employees for the enforcement, he continued.

“Presently, we are having problems getting code problems, like derelict vehicles, vehicles on unimproved spaces (in yards), trash, etc. resolved,” he said. “Our present system is not working satisfactorily.”

The city already has many ordinances in place, said West, that are either overlooked or selectively enforced. He cautioned the council to be careful of the unintended consequences of the codes.

Black later returned to the council table to vote on a motion by council member Ed DeGaris to table the codes, which passed unanimously.

In other business, the council:

• Tabled a proposed contract for the police officers union, saying that changes made recently to future employee benefits could be different than the proposed document. City manager Mark Massingham said the proposed contract has been reduced from 150 pages to 50 pages through negotiations.

• Dropped a grant proposal to apply for funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to remove asbestos from the former city complex on Second Street. A report needed for the application was not received from an inspection service in time to the meet the deadline, Winters said.

• Moved items regarding the annexation of property on Shelby Road and at 3547 N. Westwood to the Dec. 10 voting session.

• Discussed a change order of approximately $1,900 to close out work on 11th Street, near Empire Comfort Systems.

• Discussed a use tax election held Nov. 5, in which the measure failed. Massingham reported that pamphlets mailed to about 600 voters prior to the election were expected to arrive the Saturday or Monday before Nov. 5. An unknown error in the postal system caused the pamphlets to arrive the Wednesday after the election, he said.

• Heard from resident Jim Chrisman, who questioned when the public would be able to see a copy of the proposed 2020 budget. The budget will be discussed at a special meeting Dec. 10, Massingham said, and likely not be ready for the council until immediately prior to the meeting.

• Heard from resident Spencer Jones, who asked the city to work toward naming a main road in town after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jones said he has been attending council meetings for a year and a half with this request, and would like the city to be more intentional in its efforts to accomplish the goal.